Paul Holes
Paul Holes is the forensic criminologist and retired Costa County Detective who spent 20 years trying to crack the Golden State Killer case, and finally did.
It’s difficult to imagine a reign of terror quite like that of the length and level of ferocity delivered by the Golden State Killer. Those who have jumped onto the true crime podcast bandwagon in the last few years will have already heard a tonne of discussion about the collection of frightening cases that were all eventually attributed to the one serial perpetrator. Spread over a large geographic area, these sadistic crimes spurned enormous manhunts and were able to make entire Californian towns alter their behaviour out of fear. No one was safe.
This was a career criminal who seemed often to be inviting capture, whilst being equally clever – or charmed - at avoiding it. At first there was a peeping tom, next a home invader, then a rapist, and then a committed murderer of women and couples. What the GSK/EAR/ONS (East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker) was most of all was horrifying prolific and his crimes put him in the uneasy category of those who have entered the public psyche by being a truly indescribable monster.